Wildlife Conservation Headlines
Toward Ending the Assault on Pumas
Because of Sinapu’s work on behalf of pumas, we have good news to report! We thank all of our supporters who wrote letters and sent emails to the Colorado Wildlife Commission in Fall 2004 asking for a reduced puma-hunting quota. With your help, we made significant in-roads!
First, the DOW recently released a draft mountain lion management plan two years ahead of schedule. Using GIS mapping technology, for the first time, the agency determined available lion habitat and estimated the pumas’ prey base. As a result, the DOW concluded that Colorado’s adult lion population includes between 3,200 and 3,400 cats—a significantly narrower range than the agency’s previous estimate of 3,000 to 7,000. We commend the agency for more accurately estimating the baseline population.
Second, in fall 2004, given the DOW’s revised population estimate and significant pressure from Sinapu and our constituents (who generated more than 2,300 letters, postcards, and emails to the Commission in favor of lion conservation!), the Wildlife Commission approved a 28% reduction in the hunting quota from 790 to 567. This signifies major progress, as the Wildlife Commission has never lowered the hunting quota by more than a nominal amount over the past 25 years.
Further, the DOW is launching a 10-year, two-million-dollar lion study on the Uncompahgre Plateau. The study will address population size, movement patterns, birth rates, predator-prey interactions, and human-lion interactions. Perhaps most importantly, the study will shed more light on how trophy hunting can impact a lion population. Pumas, because of their secretive nature, are challenging to study. Few agencies or individuals expend resources to study or protect them—Colorado now being a notable exception.
As a result of our persistent efforts, the Wildlife Commission required the DOW to hire a carnivore biologist to head-up the 10-year puma study. Sinapu pushed for a top-notch researcher, and we were delighted when the DOW hired Dr. Ken Logan last year. Dr. Logan and his wife, Linda Sweanor, conducted groundbreaking research on pumas in New Mexico and published an account of their research and findings in Desert Puma—the pivotal book on mountain lion ecology and biology.
In addition to leading the Colorado mountain lion study, Dr. Logan—with the organizing help of the Four Corner Houndsmen Association—now conducts clinics for lion hunters across the state on techniques to distinguish between toms and females. This effort will hopefully result in fewer female cats killed. We’d like to see Dr. Logan’s presentation captured on film and then made mandatory for all lion hunters across the West!
Things are changing for pumas in Colorado—but not quickly enough. Thankfully, the state seems to be headed in a more positive direction—for the first time utilizing science-based management, lowering the hunting quota considerably, and keeping long-term conservation in mind. There’s more to do for pumas. Sinapu will continue to advocate for responsible management of these icons of the West.
Hunting Pumas: How Many is Too Many?
Colorado and other western states have little population data for pumas—an asocial and territorial species occurring in low densities (usually no more than one or two per 100 square kilometers). While little population data exist upon which to base management decisions, these wild cats face liberal hunting and trapping regulations across most of the West.
Indeed, off-road vehicles, two-way radios and radio-telemetry collars for dog-hunting packs facilitate lion hunting. Given these easier hunting conditions, the availability of plenty of hunting tags, and rising lion harvest quotas around much of the West, the number of pumas killed by sport hunters in western states has about tripled since 1980.
On top of this, habitat for pumas is fast disappearing due to human-caused threats such as growth and sprawl. Incursions into once pristine landscapes for oil and gas drilling, or logging roads, increase access for hunters as well as poachers.
In Colorado, the number of pumas killed by sport hunters has increased by nearly 400% since 1980. If Colorado’s 2003 hunting quota of 790 had actually been met, the state’s lion population would possibly have been in trouble, testified a Colorado Division of Wildlife (DOW) biologist at a public hearing in 2004.
Over the past 10 years, trophy hunters have killed 1,634 female pumas in Colorado—44% of the pumas killed by hunters. In 2003, for example, Colorado sport hunters killed 370 pumas, 160 females. Recent biological studies indicate that protecting females is paramount to conserving the species for the long-term.
Pumas give birth to their kittens throughout the year; most are born in the summer and fall months. Mother cats invest 11 to 16 months raising their kittens, and if kittens are orphaned before they’re nine months old, they will likely perish. Western lion-hunting seasons (typically in the snowy winter) usually begin when kittens are only a few months old. Thus, the timing of hunting seasons across the West results in the deaths of many orphaned kittens.
